Associate Manager, Cultivation Pilot Plants

Are you a strong people leader motivated by building the right team and making it thrive and perform? Do you have an urge to make complex processes simple and effective with a natural focus on optimizations/LEAN? If you are looking for a position in a high-paced and dynamic environment that combines both daily operations and long-term improvements, then you might be the new Associate Manager we are looking for to head up one of our teams within the department Cultivation Pilot Plants (CPP).

Learn more about Cultivation Pilot Plants and get introduced to our area: CMC API Pilots - please visit our career page

The position

We're expanding our Cultivation Pilot Plants (CPP) to increase production output of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) for clinical and development trials. As an Associate Manager, you'll lead a team of 15 scientists and technicians responsible for preparing, executing, and assigning status to API production campaigns.

As an Associate manager you will be:

• A role model setting clear directions and priorities for your team.
• Secure good work conditions including work life balance and develop your team and individual employees to be the best version of themselves.
• Proactive in solving operational challenges in a systematic way and secure the team learns from mistakes. 
• Curious and proactive in optimizing both production output and work processes. This includes implementation and maintaining a good Kaizen/LEAN culture. 
• Able to communicate clearly and effectively both with your team and with your stakeholders.
• Open, honest, respectful and embrace diversity according to Novo Nordisk values.

In this job, you will have opportunities to grow personally and professionally by developing your leadership competencies and being part of establishing an optimized facility while keeping the current production running. You will be a part of the CPP leadership of 8 colleagues, ensuring our daily operations and future productions needs are meet. You will have a direct reference to the Department Manager.

Qualifications

To succeed in this position, you preferably have:

• A master’s degree (MSc) or PhD in engineering, biochemistry/chemical engineering, pharmacy, or other relevant fields
• A minimum of +5 years of people management, ideally from the pharmaceutical industry or production environment
• Passion for setting directions, motivating, and developing team members.
• Experience from a GMP-regulated manufacturing area is highly advantageous.
• The ability to challenge the status quo and see cLEAN as a natural part of your daily work.
• Good communication skills in Danish and English

On a personal level, we expect you to be an ambitious and performance-oriented leader, that finds simple solutions to complex challenges. You demonstrate strong communication skills, take responsibility for developing others and motivate your employees by being inspiring and engaging. Furthermore, you think above and beyond your area and you promote knowledge sharing with your peers.

About the department

As part of Novo Nordisk PSQIT organisation, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) Development & Scaling makes a real difference for patients with chronic diseases across the world. We develop, manufacture and distribute drug candidates for clinical trials and have a strong culture with a “can do” mind-set. 

CPP is part of CMC API Pilots and CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing & Control) Development & Scaling area that manufactures and controls new drug substance candidates for the development portfolio at Novo Nordisk. The department consists of two separate production facilities with four production lines in total and a new facility to come in 2025. In CPP we work with various technologies and equipment depending on whether the cultivation is based on yeast, E. coli or mammalian cells, and on how the recovery process is designed (i.e. centrifugation, filtration, chromatography etc.).

In addition, your team is one of several fermentation and recovery teams in the facility, consisting of approximately 15 employees (scientists and technicians), that are going to test the brand-new facility or run an existing facility with huge potential for output optimizations. You and your team will be responsible for the preparation, execution and status assignment of API production campaigns. This will be in close collaboration with a variety of stakeholders such as Development, QA, QC and other Production areas of Novo Nordisk.

Working at Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is its people. We know that life is anything but linear and balancing what is important at different stages of our career is never easy. That’s why we make room for diverse life situations, always putting people first. We value our employees for the unique skills they bring to the table, and we work continuously to bring out the best in them. Working at Novo Nordisk is working toward something bigger than ourselves, and it’s a collective effort. Novo Nordisk relies on the joint potential and collaboration of its more than 60,000 employees. Together, we go further. Together, we’re life changing.

Contact

For further information, please feel free to contact Senior Director Mads Bjørn Stage on +45 3448 9467.

Deadline

May 26th, 2024.

Please apply as soon as possible as we are conducting interviews on continuous basis.

You do not need to attach a cover letter to your application, but please include a few sentences about why you are applying in your resume or CV. To ensure an efficient and fair recruitment process, please refrain from adding a photo to your CV.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants. 

At Novo Nordisk we recognize that it is no longer good enough to aspire to be the best company in the world. We need to aspire to be the best company for the world and we know that this is only possible with talented employees with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. We are therefore committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates the diversity of our employees, the patients we serve and communities we operate in. Together, we’re life changing.